Monday, August 23, 2010

community accountability zine call for submissions

I am so glad someone is doing this zine! I have been trying to find time to try and put together this exact thing! Please submit!!!It's Down to This

For info and submissions contact: responsezine@gmail.com

“It’s Down to This” is a new zine compilation that aims to give space to step back, take a deep breath and reflect on where we’re at.

Reflecting on our experiences with community accountability processes, survivor support, or general efforts to cultivate community response to sexual violence- this is a space to talk about our experiences with this work, what we have learned, where we want to go from here, what we feel, what we want others to be able to hear, see, think about, engage with.

It is an attempt to further give voice to our efforts and experiences in doing this work, to give space and voice to silence. To know and hear how we have survived in this work, how we have sustained this work, or why we burned out. To further document our attempts at figuring out what community accountability looks like, or what it even is. To be able to reflect and grow from our mistakes and epiphanies.

SEEKING: stories, essays, interviews, comics, artwork and thoughts reflecting on working around accountability and community response to sexual violence:

What has it looked like? What has it entailed? What could it look like? Who does it involve? In what ways? How is a community responsible? How is a community involved? What can an accountability process look like? What has it looked like? What works? What doesn’t? What were the fuck-ups, the successes?

*These questions are asked with the assumption that confidentiality will be respected and that stories will not be shared if they are not yours to share.

*The word ‘community’ is used with the awareness that it is often used problematically.

Looking for submissions that:

- explore the importance of accountability and support work as an act of community building and collective liberation, that express the importance of this work within social justice movements.

-reflect on the support, empowerment, recovery and growth that have come out of this work

-reflect on the pain, trauma and frustration of this work or which is inherent in this work.

-develop ideas and methods of sustainability around this work

-look at the social and political contexts in which community accountability and response to sexual violence and partner abuse grows and exists.